Jerry Yang may be raising funds to take Yahoo private

Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang is apparently interested in buying out the company and taking it private, reports Reuters.

Yahoo has experienced some notable setbacks of late that have put its future in question. The company fired CEO Carol Bartz in September because of her inability to grow the business. Following her departure, Yahoo and its advisers reportedly began working on a strategic review that could include a sale. However, interim CEO Tim Morse hasn’t been clear about the possibility of selling the company.

If Yahoo is up for sale, a deal from Yang would involve selling off his 3.63 percent stake in the company. Fellow Yahoo co-founder David Filo would also likely sell his nearly six percent stake. The report from Reuters indicates that a handful of private equity firms were potentially interested in the deal, including Bain Capital, Silver Lake Partners, and Hellman and Friedman.

Yang’s strategy for taking the company private might have something to do with Yahoo’s poor stock price, which limits its ability to make acquisitions that could help boost its market share in advertising and search. A sale would also allow Yang and associates to more easily sell off its international business in Japan to pay off some of the company’s debt.

Previously, VentureBeat reported that both Microsoft and Alibaba had expressed interest in purchasing Yahoo.